Naruto Darkest Before the Dawn
by ChronoStrikesBack
Summary: My first fic. The idea of this was to be a good story without messing around with the core storyline. Big stuff to come...
1. Fall Leaves of Hidden Leaf Village

Naruto-Darkest Before the Dawn

Chapter I- THE FALL LEAVES OF THE HIDDEN LEAF VILLAGE

Nara Shikamaru shifted into a more comfortable position atop the roof of his house. He yawned lazily as he watched the clouds roll by. It was late in the year and the weather had finally begun to cool off after the heat of the summer. Though, he thought, the real heat had not come from the weather, but instead had come in the wake of the battle with the Sound at the end of the Chuunin Exam and the subsequent flight of Uchiha Sasuke from the Hidden Leaf Village.

Nothing had been heard of either for the six months since. The Hidden Sound Village had evidently been on their best behavior and Sasuke was simply gone. Uzumaki Naruto, the most annoying person in the village by Shikamaru's logic, had also been gone since then, but he had gone to train with Jiraya, one of the three legendary ninjas. Good riddance, Shikamaru thought, it had been considerably quieter since Naruto had been gone.

Shikamaru stood and stretched. He was literally aching all over from all the missions he had been going on as of late. The Hidden Leaf was still at a lack of ninjas, so he was forced to pull double-time. He hadn't even had much time to do his favorite thing in the world: Sit and watch the clouds roll by. Everything had been so much easier when he was young, just a lazy-ass student in the ninja academy. Now he had to be a lazy-ass chuunin, which wouldn't have been so bad if not for all the responsibility it had pilled onto him. Just no place for people just to stop and appreciate the fall leaves anymore, he thought.

He jumped down from the roof, landing easily on the stone street below. He put his hands in his pockets and started walking. He didn't have anywhere to go, really. His best friend, Akimichi Choji, was at a family reunion deep in the mountains and wouldn't be back for at least a week.

Shikamaru kept mostly to alleys and back streets as crowds bugged him. All those people couldn't be going somewhere, so they were probably just out there to annoy him. His feet treaded the streets easily and guided themselves having gone these routes so many times so far during the summer. He had spent a lot of time lately walking to avoid messengers bringing him missions. He was harder to catch if he didn't stay in one place.

He walked for a while before the sight of a certain pink-haired girl roused him from his semi-lethargic stupor. She was sitting at a small umbrella covered table in front of the Kunai Café, deeply absorbed in reading the paper. Shikamaru walked over to her, sat down in the chair opposite her and began helping himself to her half-eaten plate of fries. It was a moment before she even noticed he was there, lowering the paper just enough to peek over it then quickly going back to reading.

"Hello to you to, Shikamaru, feel free to eat my lunch."

Through his mouthful of fries Shikamaru managed a thick "Yo" and a grin.

Haruno Sakura had become a good friend of his over the course of the summer. Since the other two members of her team had gone, she had mellowed out considerably, which suited Shikamaru just fine, she had always been a little high-strung for his tastes before.

Sakura folded up the paper and sighed.

"Nothing?" said Shikamaru, mouth empty this time.

"Of course not," said Sakura airily, "Not like it's any surprise though. Nobody's heard from Sasuke since he left, I don't hold out much hope about him being in the paper anymore."

Sasuke had been Sakura's romantic interest when he had been here and she still read the paper everyday in hopes of hearing anything about him.

"Well," Shikamaru began, "It's not like he's just gonna go around razing villages hoping that no ones noticed. He's training under the most wanted shinobi in the world, and now he's officially a missing-nin. You don't just go advertising that."

"I suppose…" said Sakura, trailing off. "Well, anyway, are you doing anything today? This is the first day off I've gotten in a while but I really don't have anything to do."

"Well, I probably should go check in with Hokage-sama, but I just can't get in the mood to go on a mission today," said Shikamaru.

"Okay then, come with me. We can call it a date, how about that?" said Sakura, standing and smiling down at him.

Shikamaru sighed an "Okay". Dates were almost as big of a hassle as missions.

A/N-"Do you like this? Review!"


	2. Sparring by Moonlight

Chapter II- SPARRING BY MOONLIGHT

Shikamaru spent the rest of the day trying to think of interesting things to say to Sakura. It wasn't normally this hard to talk to her, but she had to go and add the pressure of making this a "date". He really wasn't that interested in her (the whole Sasuke obsession was a bit of a turn off) but he didn't want to be known as a lousy person to date. Sakura seemed to realize how hard he was trying and gracefully put up with increasingly mundane conversations. Despite Shikamaru's lousy attempts at talking, Sakura still seemed very much to be enjoying herself. Apparently she found his embarrassment highly amusing.

They were, however, at no shortage of places to go and things to do. They started off by going to Shikimono's Shuriken Shop, which they were promptly kicked out of when Sakura failed miserably trying to hit a bulls-eye with a 17 point shuriken, nearly slicing off Shikimono-san's ear. They then entertained themselves briefly with a trip to Taku Ninja Wears ("Where the Shoes Never Have Toes"), but the same collection of vests, pants that aren't quite, and of course, shoes without toes, grows rather old rather quickly. Twice they had to dodge messengers bringing missions to Shikamaru, the second of which eventually culminated in a fantastic flight from one end of the village to the other, finishing off with Shikamaru and Sakura hiding in the nostrils of the 3rd Hokage, the statue of course. The first wasn't nearly as interesting, as they were easily able to lose the rather incompetent messenger in a large marketplace.

By the time the sun was setting and the sky streaked violet and orange, the pair had found themselves lying lazily amongst the spikes of the 4th Hokage's hair, feeling tired but still rather satisfied that the day had turned out better than either could have originally pictured. Even Shikamaru, to whom dating was little more than a mostly unnecessary and largely avoidably hassle in life, had to admit that the day had be fun.

Settled comfortably in the notch where two spikes met, Shikamaru gazed first at the now almost fully set sun and then at Sakura, sitting with her legs drawn up close a few feet up the spike in front of him. He had just started to say something, but had his attention quickly drawn away by a rustling from below him. He adjusted himself to look down but saw nothing and looked back to Sakura, who seemed not to have noticed anything. He relaxed, but moments later heard a sound very similar, but much closer this time. Who would be sneaking up on them here?

He moved into a crouch and jumped to Sakura, who began to let out a startled scream, but was quickly silenced by Shikamaru's hand over her mouth.

"Shhh," he hissed, "Someone's watching us." His eyes darted around.

"Why would someone be watching US?" said Sakura, taking his hand from her mouth. "Who would want to?"

"I don't know," he said, moving easily up the spike for a better view. "But I'd like to find out."

Shikamaru looked quickly in every direction, then suddenly his head jerked up, sight set on a point some twenty feet above them. With one fluid hand motion, three kunai lodged themselves in that very point, narrowly missing the shape which blurred out of sight.

Sakura was on her guard now, too. She looked nervously around, kunai drawn. From somewhere just over her head, a figure jumped, landing easily above Shikamaru. Rapidly responding, he sent a backhand strike at the figure he at least now knew to be human. It parried easily, deflecting the blows Shikamaru sent now with increasing speed.

The figure jumped backwards, landing perched atop the spike, it's face obscured in the twilight. Shikamaru sent himself forward for a punch, which the figure easily blocked. After a second unsuccessful flurry of blows, both flung themselves backwards, Shikamaru landing crouched just in front of Sakura.

"That's a Jounin level ninja. I can't land a single thing," he said, breathing heavily.

Sakura seemed positively terrified at this statement.

"We need to get out of here then."

"No," said Shikamaru, shaking his head, "If that is a Jounin, I doubt we could outrun him. I need to get on more level footing. Sakura, stay here."

He jumped right in front of the figure, swung a missed punch, and jumped straight up, landing easily on the even ground above. Just a moment later the figure joined him.

_Okay_, he thought, _it'll be easier to fight up here but I doubt I'll fair any better in hand-to-hand combat. It's too dark for my shadow bind to be of any real use_. Shikamaru looked quickly about the area for anything that could be of use, but found just rock. _Calm down_. The figure, on the other hand, seemed to be fully enjoying their little match, and assumed a low fighting stance.

It struck first this time, with a blow Shikamaru was barely able to parry. Another flurry of blows was made in Shikamaru's direction his time, all of which he was hardly able to keep up with. After a last blocked kick, the figure jumped backwards, crouched low in it's fighting stance.

It was now fully dark out, and Shikamaru was running low on ideas. Hopefully Sakura had gone for help, he wasn't sure how much longer he could last against a fighter of this caliber. Still looking about frantically and still finding only rock, he decided it would be best to lead the fight into the village where he could find backup.

He was just about to start off when the figure whirled around the opposite way. A kunai knocked harmlessly to the side, it was now exchanging blows rapidly with Sakura. This was obviously not the Sakura he knew, though. The Sakura he knew was the weakest member of her team, but this Sakura was holding her own well against this Jounin level ninja. Shikamaru gaped slightly. What was the 5th Hokage teaching her?

He ran forward towards the kunai on the ground, picked it up, turned, and flung it at the figure. It caught it easily, never missing a beat in its fight with Sakura. Within moments, it had flattened itself against the ground and aimed a spinning kick at Sakura's feet, connecting and sending her feet flying out from under her. With no motion at all, it disappeared, reappearing below Shikamaru and bringing him down too, but staying there with a hand on his shoulder, it's massive strength holding Shikamaru down. It crouched low over him, but when it brought it's face close enough for Shikamaru to make out details, he found it not only a Leaf Ninja, but to be none other than Hatake Kakashi, smiling his familiar smile.


End file.
